A Weekend at Eurogamer – Friday 28th September 2012

Today begins my weekend of the Eurogamer Expo 2012… it’s not only been an exhausting day, but a rather short one too; I actually didn’t do much today, and for good reason of course… I HAVE AN ENTIRE WEEKEND TO GO. I decided today was just to get to know my surroundings and play games less crowded, then move onto the major lines during the weekend.
Now walking into Eurogamer, a friend of mine handed me a Medal of Honor poster, which I will gladly stick on my wall when I get home. The biggest problem with gaming expos is that as soon as you enter one, you literally have no idea where to start, so for the first hour, all I did was walk around, until I finally found something that peaked my interest; LittleBigPlanet Karting.
For the first few minutes, I was trying to get to grips with the controls, but after a while, they became quite easy. I had to restart a few times due to trying to get used to the controls (it would have been an unfair advantage otherwise). In a match, there are lots of power-ups to which you can pick up. Some will shoot rockets, some will boost you far and some will stun players around you. In the level I played, there’s also a leaping area where you have to attach your poppit string and swing.
Later I had a chance to play Tomb Raider, and I’m always uncomfortable at playing with a controller locked in the same spot but I had to make do. The section available to play was (I believe) near the beginning just after the boat accident. Lara has to survive her first night in the wilderness, and the emotion and power that came from this demo was phenomenal. I also got to kill a deer, and that really upset me inside, which just proves that this is going to be one game that many will have on their radar; never has a game impacted on me so emotionally like this.
Another game I had a chance to play was Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, but on the Playstation Vita. I enjoy the Sly Cooper games (have completed the first, making my way through the second) but this demo didn’t impress purely due to the way too simple dialogue and the extremely awkward controls. There’s a part in the demo where you have to jump across debris moving fast down a water stream. To pass this area successfully, you have to slow down time (so it’s like Prince of Persia). The problem is that it’s extremely easy to fall into the water. If you die, you lose some health and the game will rewind to the last known safe point.
The only other game I played today was Joe Danger 2: The Movie, which you might known is already out. This is definitely one game I will buy when I can; it’s extremely colourful and quite addicting, no matter how many times you might fail. You’re essentially shooting a movie (go with it) and in order to film it, you have to enter dangerous situations, like traverse through a set of tracks or ski down a mountain whilst an avalanche is hurtling its way down the mountain. The movie titles are usually puns of other well known movies too, for example I believe one level was “Indiana Bones”.
I also managed to run into a few characters from various games which you might see in the photos below, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Big Boss, Master Chief and more (sorry if I look like an idiot next to a few). I also met someone I’ve known for years; Martyn Littlewood, or as you may known him as InTheLittleWood.
I managed to take a peak at various other games such as SimCity and the Unfinished Swan. The Unfinished Swan is certainly one game I will want to play this weekend. You’re essentially in a white canvass and to understand your path, you throw black ink at the walls so that your path appears. It’s extremely unique and looks incredible; more on that to follow in the weekend. For now, if you’re at Eurogamer this weekend, I hope you have a good time. Below you’ll see some pictures I took.